Delhi residents protest after alleged rape of Manipur 14-year-old

NEW DELHI | By Shyamantha Asokan

NEW DELHI An angry crowd gathered outside a Delhi police station on Saturday to protest poor policing and racist treatment of people from the northeast after a 14-year-old girl from that part of India filed charges of rape in the capital.

The death last week of Nido Tania, a student from Arunachal Pradesh who was alleged to have been beaten by shopkeepers, has sparked similar protests in recent days.

At least 100 protesters gathered outside the south Delhi police station where the latest case, involving a girl from Manipur, was filed on Saturday.

The victim's landlord's son has been arrested in connection with the attack, Delhi police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat told Reuters. He did not know when the attack happened.

The poor state of safety for women in India has been in the spotlight since a 23-year-old student was gang-raped on a bus in Delhi in 2012. She later died of her injuries.

In the latest high-profile case, a Danish tourist was raped in the city's backpacker district last month after asking a group of men for directions to her hotel in the early evening.

The protests are the latest challenge for the city's newly elected Aam Aadmi ("Common Man") Party, a new force in India's political scene.

Aam Aadmi's leader Arvind Kejriwal became Delhi's chief minister in December amid public euphoria over his anti-graft agenda, but has since faced problems ranging from disputes with the city's police to its power distributors.

Following its surprise victory in Delhi's local elections, AAP hopes to repeat its success in national polls due by May.

(Additional reporting by Vipin Das M; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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